TIJUANA – Mexicans living in the United States sent 14 per cent more money to their families in Baja California from January to September in 2011 than in the same period the previous year, a leading economist said.

Mexico's central bank reported that immigrants sent a total of $297.4 million to the state, topping the $260.8 million sent in the first nine months of 2010, according to Alejandro Díaz Bautista, a researcher for Mexico's National Science and Technology Council.

He said these funds, known as remittances, contribute to the regional economy in the same way that other revenue streams do, such direct foreign investment.

"Remittances have the great potential to generate economic growth and development in the regions that receive them," said Díaz Bautista.

The amount of money immigrants living in the United States sent to loved ones in Mexico overall increased in the first eleven months of 2011 compared to the same period the previous year. According to the Banco de México, the migrants sent $20.9 billion, a 7.1 per cent increase from 2010. (The amount sent to individual states in the last three months of the year has not yet been released.)

The increase is good news because remittances are the second most important source of foreign income for Mexico, after oil exports.

The states of Baja California and Colima work in the United States to reach their former residents to promote the benefits of sending remittances back home, said Díaz Bautista, who is also a professor at the College of the Northern Border.

In August, the Baja California government even issued a statement praising the remittances as "a benefit of immigration that generates a favorable effect on the families that receive them."

That's in contrast to local governments that frequently complain about immigrants, particularly those who are deported, whom the label "an extra expense to the state."

In a recent interview, the founder of the College of the Northern Border, Jorge Bustamante, a U.N. expert on immigration, said that the Mexican government continually scorns immigrants.

In a way, the government sees the problems that the migrants suffer in the United States as brought on by themselves, despite their significant economic contribution to Mexico.

Omar.millan@sandiegored.com